Meztitlan

Yesterday I did a straight drop from Atotonilco down towards Meztitlan, a tiny little town in a valley between a ton of mountains.  I was headed to see La Laguna San Cristobal, but I never got there.  After riding down a dirt road for what seemed like an eternity, I came upon some dogs.  Not very nice ones.  The one dog chased after me while her pups ran in front of my bike, and in an attempt not to run them over, I hit a ditch and took a spill.  My camera flew off my bike but it´s just fine thank god, and I flew off it too, right into a bunch of dust and rocks.  Keeping my wits about me I spun around so I could kick the dog if it came by to bite me, but luckily it just ran away.  The bummer part about all this is that I snapped my front rim and I´m stuck in Meztitlan for a minute while I get a new rim.  I found a bike shop that has one the same size as mine, which is completely lucky, and I´m having them put the hub and spokes from my old rim onto the new one.  It might be done today, but it might not be done until monday.  If that´s the case then I get to pay for a few more nights at the hotel.  It´s a really beautiful place with extremely nice people that are feeding me, driving me around to get bike parts, and being very helpful.  It´s 200 pesos a night to stay there, which is somewhere around 18 dollars, so it´s not the end of the world at all.  I went to a really old convent this morning that´s on top of a mountain.  It´s the most goreous place i´ve been in a long time, maybe ever. 
    The convent sits on top of a mountain overlooking the town of Meztitlan where it was built in the 16th century.  It´s made of rocks and cement and all of the archways are painted with intricate designs.  I steped into the plaza and looked out over the mountains covered in clouds and the valley filled with farm land.  Mass was in session and the chanting spilled out into the air around me and gave me the chills.  Inside, there´s a large courtyard and staricases that rise up into the second level of the convent where there are corredors, archways, and paintings on every wall.  The music kept going and I completely forgot about my bike problems.  I could spend all day up there just watching the mountains.  What amazing luck to be here in this beautiful place.  There couldn´t be a better place to be stuck.

 Here are some photos of the descent and of the valley and the convent.